On a lake trip over July 4th weekend, my daughter's iPhone 7 Plus ended up taking a dive. It was found in about 3 feet of water 24 hours later, still working but with some permanent damage. The experience provided a few lessons.
Immersion in water used to ruin a cellphone. That's less true today because many newer phones are "water-resistant" (see tinyurl.com/y4gyjmxr) — but they are still not "waterproof." Water-resistant phones are only designed to survive underwater for a while, under certain conditions. And most cellphone warranties still don't cover water damage.
Be a little skeptical about water-resistant phones. Samsung was criticized for allegedly exaggerating the after-immersion performance of its water-resistant phones (see tinyurl.com/y2n3g2qh). Those phones were rated IP68, meaning they should survive 30 minutes underwater at a depth of 4.9 feet, or 1.5 meters. (See ratings at tinyurl.com/yyew9fc6).
That raises an interesting question: What can you expect from a phone that has spent some time underwater? I was surprised when my daughter's phone emerged from the lake with its screen glowing and still worked — mostly. To appreciate my surprise, consider that the iPhone 7 Plus is an "older" device whose water-resistant qualities are less robust than today's phones. Apple said the phone can withstand 30 minutes in 3 feet of water (its rating is IP67). But it actually survived 48 times that long.
While that was impressive, the iPhone still had problems:
• The phone's camera suffered the most. Some moisture had gotten inside, which meant the camera took hazy photos. This seemed to improve when the iPhone had been dry a while, but then the haziness returned.
This underscored something I had learned years ago, when moisture seeped into the camera on my iPhone 5 during normal operating conditions: The camera is the most vulnerable part of a phone, and even a tiny bit of water will ruin it. (In that case, Apple replaced the phone because it was judged to have a manufacturing flaw rather than water damage.) The damage to my daughter's iPhone suggests that the camera remains its most vulnerable part, even in the age of water-resistant phones.
• The phone's touch screen was initially a bit sluggish, and sometimes did things I hadn't asked it to. But after a few days in dry air, the touch screen worked fine.